I treat my office like a high school hall­way. All over my walls are inspi­ra­tional quotes to keep me going. Writ­ing is a lone­ly task: it’s being the Sisy­phus of sen­tences. Every now and then, I pre­tend to invite imag­i­nary cheer­lead­ers (includ­ing my best friend’s daugh­ter) to my office before I sit down to write, with them cheer­ing, ​“You can do it! Go… WRITE!”

What fol­lows are the top thir­teen inspi­ra­tional Jew­ish quotes I turn to when I feel like I’ve fall­en down that deep, dark chute of writ­ing nothingness.

“In know­ing who you are and writ­ing from it, you will help the world by giv­ing it under­stand­ing.” — Natal­ie Goldberg

“Sur­pris­ing things can hap­pen when you start to pray…” — Jacque­line Osherow

“Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whis­pers, Grow, grow.” — The Talmud

Diana Blet­ter was among the first to write about the stereo­types of the Jew­ish Amer­i­can Princess and the Jew­ish moth­er, and their impact on Jew­ish women. Her writ­ing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huff­in­g­ton Post, tablet​mag​.org, The North Amer­i­can Review, and has been anthol­o­gized. Her first book, The Invis­i­ble Thread: A Por­trait of Jew­ish Amer­i­can Women (Jew­ish Pub­li­ca­tion Soci­ety), was short-list­ed for a Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award. Diana lives in Israel, where she is a mem­ber of a Jew­ish-Mus­lim-Druze-Chris­t­ian women’s peace group.